More than $1.8 million spent on snow removal in Payette County, officials say

The Payette County Sheriff’s Office now says that total — first cited in a news release Wednesday — is just what residents, businesses, school districts, cities and the county have had to spend on snow removal from the storms that battered the region in December and January.

In a clarification sent out Thursday, the sheriff’s office said it is still gathering and processing information about the value of buildings damaged by the snow.

Those include 15 carports or awnings, 55 outbuildings, seven homes with complete or partial roof collapses and seven damaged commercial buildings. Additionally, 65 head of livestock were killed by falling structures, and the county tallied four related structure fires.

The sheriff’s office introduced the $1.8 million figure in a news release about “the total cost and impact” of the storms, citing it as general storm-related spending in a paragraph that also tallied the damaged buildings.

Gov. Butch Otter did declare a state of emergency in the county as the need for state resources became apparent during the storms.

Payette County Emergency Management is still collecting preliminary damage assessment forms.

Residents and businesses can assist the county by downloading and filling out the Damage Assessment form and then emailing this form along with any photos to payettecountyaid@payettecounty.org.

Forms can also be delivered to the Payette County Treasurer’s Office in person or by mail to 1130 3rd Ave. N., Room 103, Payette, ID 83661.

The form is located at this link.

Citizens can also complete a Casualty Exemption Form for property tax purposes and send it to the same location. The form is located at this link.

This story was originally published February 8, 2017 at 6:24 PM with the headline "More than $1.8 million spent on snow removal in Payette County, officials say."